DraftKings Opt Out of WSOP sponsorship

DraftKings this week announced they would be opting out of any November Nine WSOP final table sponsorship deal, in the wake of the recent Nevada Gaming Control Board’s (NGCB) ruling that DFS “constitutes gambling under Nevada law.”

The DFS (Daily Fantasy Sports) giant has in recent years appeared in some shape or form at the WSOP, but after last week’s bad news from Nevada -which saw DFS operators in the state being told they must ‘obtain a gambling licence’ – the partnership has ended, for now at least.

Seth Palansky, the WSOP.com Editor-In-Chief confirmed the break, stating:

The news brings to a halt a deal which last year saw DraftKings satellites contributing over 100 players to the WSOP events – a relationship which first came to prominence after Greg Merson won the Main Event in 2012 while sporting a DraftKings patch on his arm.

PocketFive’s Dan Cypra reported that:

He followed by stating:

The NGCB decision last week led to both DraftKings and fellow DFS behemoth FanDuel both stating that they would “cease operations in Nevada”. FanDuel commented on the surprise move by the Gaming Commission by stating the ruling:

StarsDraft, the PokerStars version of DFS also pulled out of the US real-money online gambling markets last week in all but four states, stating:

With DFS undergoing such a turbulent time, it is not surprising that related-markets are distancing themselves from the main ‘culprits’. Poker sites and operators have long held the view that DFS has been very lucky to have avoided the same ‘legality’ issues which caused the ‘Black Friday’ melt-down in 2011.

This was when the 2006 UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) was finally brought to bear on the financial transactions which poker sites depended on. The UIGEA didn’t make playing online poker illegal, but it did make processing transactions from financial institutions and banks between online gambling websites illegal.

DFS had avoided such repercussions as they were considered to be ‘a game of skill’ when they burst onto the scene, as opposed to ‘a game of luck’ which poker was seen as and therefore not subject to the ‘gambling’ controls.

This disparity has seen the major DFS operators gain a massive following, while other ‘similar’ markets were decimated and ‘outlawed’. The recent Nevada rulings and subsequent ongoing investigations are now attacking DFS in much the same way, and it may be some time before there is any real clarity to the future of the fantasy sports sector.